Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Jonah grieves that the Ninevites are spared contrary to his oracle: hence God corrects and instructs him through the shade of the ivy and the worm that gnaws it.
Vulgate Text: Jonah 4:1-11
1. And Jonah was afflicted with great affliction, and was angry. 2. And he prayed to the Lord, and said: I beseech You, O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my own country? For this reason I hastened to flee to Tarshish: for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, patient and of great compassion, and forgiving of evil. 3. And now, O Lord, take, I pray, my life from me, for death is better for me than life. 4. And the Lord said: Do you think you do well to be angry? 5. And Jonah went out of the city, and sat toward the east of the city, and he made himself a shelter there, and sat under it in the shade, until he might see what would happen to the city. 6. And the Lord God prepared an ivy plant, and it grew up over the head of Jonah, to be a shade over his head and to protect him (for he had labored), and Jonah rejoiced exceedingly over the ivy. 7. And God prepared a worm at the rising of the dawn on the next day, and it struck the ivy, and it withered. 8. And when the sun had risen, the Lord commanded a hot and burning wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, and he was faint with heat; and he wished for his soul to die,
and said: It is better for me to die than to live. 9. And the Lord said to Jonah: Do you think you do well to be angry about the ivy? And he said: I do well to be angry, even unto death. 10. And the Lord said: You are grieved about the ivy, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came up in one night and perished in one night. 11. And shall I not spare Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and many cattle?
Morally, learn how perverse is indiscreet zeal, and how displeasing it is to God. For Jonah ought to have reflected and consoled himself that what was at stake here was the honor of God, who had sent Jonah, more than his own; and that God would take care of His own honor, lest He be considered a liar. Again, he ought to have reflected that the threatening oracles of God are normally conditional, and therefore are sent ahead by God so that they may lead men to repentance, and thus He may spare them. For when things and persons change, the decree and sentence of God changes. Wherefore this change is not in God and God's decree, but in the defendants and sinners themselves. For God's sentence is this: Let the sinner die, if indeed he persists in sin; but if he does not persist but repents, let him not die but live, Ezekiel XVIII, 32.
More discreetly and more piously, Micah, chapter II, 11, when he foretold certain destruction to the impious, grieving and preferring their life to his own honor: "Would that," he says, "I were not a man having the (prophetic) spirit, and that I were rather speaking falsehood!" But Jonah, driven by passion, did not consider these things; but intent only on his own honor, as men who are zealous for their own reputation tend to be: "Is not this what I said," he asks, "when I was yet in my own country? For this reason I hastened to flee to Tarshish. For I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, patient and of great compassion, and forgiving of evil." The Chaldean reads: Revoking the sentence, so as not to inflict evil. You know this, O Jonah! Why then do you not do the same? Why do you not temper anger with clemency? Why do you not imitate your God? Why do you not wish to be clement, that is, divine?
Hence it is clear that Jonah and the Prophets did not have the prophetic spirit as a permanent habit; but were from time to time left by it and abandoned to themselves, so that it might be evident they were men like all others; and then, driven by a natural and human spirit rather than a divine one, they sometimes did and said things foreign to charity, equity and truth, as Jonah did here.
James and John the apostles labored with a similar indiscreet zeal, Luke IX, 54, when, indignant at the Samaritans because they had rejected Christ, they said: "Lord, do You wish us to say that fire should come down from heaven and consume them?" Wherefore Christ, rebuking them, said: "You do not know of what spirit you are. The Son of Man did not come to destroy souls but to save them." St. Carpus labored with a similar zeal, whose long but memorable vision on this matter St. Dionysius recounts, letter 8 to Demophilus. Similarly Bishop Acacius labored at the Council of Nicaea; who, when he showed himself too severe in receiving back to
Verse 1
1. And Jonah was afflicted — when, after forty days had elapsed, he saw his oracle frustrated and Nineveh not overthrown, as he had predicted. Various authors give various causes for his affliction: first, St. Jerome and Remigius think he was afflicted out of love for his own people, because he knew that the salvation of the Gentiles would be the ruin of Israel. When therefore he saw God showing mercy to the Ninevites, he thought it would be withdrawn from the Jews, and that God's wrath was threatening them; and for this reason he grieved so greatly. Second, Arias thinks he grieved that the Assyrians were spared, because he knew that the Israelites would be punished and devastated by them. But this is said without foundation. Third, Vatablus thinks he grieved that the Jews, provoked by so many threats of the Prophets, were so hard at repentance, while the Ninevites were so ready for it that, moved by one oracle of his, they gave themselves entirely to fasting, sackcloth and ashes. But Jonah gives another reason.
I say therefore that he was afflicted because he saw God sparing the penitent Ninevites, and consequently his oracle, by which he had predicted that it would be destroyed, being rendered vain and false, and therefore he feared he would be mocked and considered a false prophet. Excessive and indiscreet love of his own honor was therefore the cause of this affliction, impatience and anger of Jonah: hence he wished to die rather than live with ignominy, says Theodoret. So also Theophylact, Albert, Clarius, Dionysius and others. So also St. Ephrem, sermon On Jonah, who introduces the Ninevites consoling Jonah thus: "Do not be sad, O Jonah, but rejoice, because we are living a new life; for through you we have found good things, through you we have come to know the God of all. You have not lied, do not fear: for our malice has been overthrown, and faith has been exalted by your hand. For pouring joy upon the angels on high, you yourself rightly ought to glory and exult on earth in this, because God rejoices over us in the heavens."
Note: Jonah desires a just thing, and therefore does not sin mortally: for he desires that the Ninevites be punished for their past sins, and that the sentence of God pronounced against them not be revoked, even though they repent; for so a judge hangs a robber for his thefts, even though he repents. But because he desires this with an indiscreet zeal and a vain end, namely to look after his own honor at such great cost to the Ninevites, he sins venially. That this is the case is clear from the words of Jonah, and from the words of God rebuking him, verse 11, when He says: "And shall I not spare Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than one hundred twenty thousand people?"
repentance those who had strayed from the faith, heard from the Emperor Constantine: "O Acacius, set up a ladder from earth to heaven, and climb alone through it to heaven." So the Ecclesiastical History reports, part II, chapter IV. Another in a similar case heard from a holy man: "If this erring one had cost you your own blood, as he cost Christ, you would receive him and gather him in, and would not allow him to be exposed outside the fold of the Church as prey for wolves." A sounder, more discreet and more pious zeal the Apostle had toward the Jews his persecutors, when he wished to become anathema from Christ for their sake, Romans IX, 1; and Moses praying for the people who had adored the golden calf, and saying: "Either forgive them this offense, or if You do not, blot me out of Your book which You have written," Exodus XXXII, 32; and Joseph kissing with tears his brothers by whom he had been sold, and feeding them throughout his whole life, Genesis XLV, 1.
Verse 5
Verse 5. 5. And Jonah went out. — A Castro thinks there is a hysteron proteron, and that these words should be placed in their proper order in chapter III, before verse 6. For he judges that Jonah, having finished his preaching as if having completed his mission, immediately went out of the city and in a hut waited for the fortieth day, to watch the outcome, as is said here. So also Theodoret, Lyranus and Dionysius. But I say there is no hysteron proteron here, and that Jonah went out not before but after the fortieth day, after the continuous penance of the Ninevites, being afflicted and grieved because his oracle about the destruction of Nineveh was not being fulfilled, having left the city, and there waited for a fuller outcome of the matter; to see whether God would revoke His sentence entirely or only in part: for he hoped that God would at least inflict some disaster upon them. But when he saw that God was entirely sparing them, grumbling he did, said, and heard what is narrated here. This is clear from the context itself, and the sequence of the narration, and from verse 10, where Jonah is rebuked by God because he grieved that God spared the city: therefore he went out after the fortieth day, when he saw that God was not inflicting upon the city the evils He had threatened, not before: for before he did not know whether God would spare the city, indeed he thought He would not spare it.
Verse 6
Verse 6. 6. An ivy plant — which would join itself to the shelter Jonah had erected, and add new and greater shade to it. Add that ivy not only provides shade against the heat of the sun, but also has the power of dispersing the heaviness of the head contracted from heat and fatigue (hence the text says: "For he had labored"); for which reason even banqueters flushed with wine were formerly crowned with ivy, to dispel the heaviness, drowsiness and heat of the head. Hence among the pagans ivy was sacred to Bacchus, as is clear from II Maccabees chapter VI, verse 7. The Septuagint, Syriac, both Arabic versions and Pagninus translate it as gourd: for the gourd, because it is cool and has ample leaves, makes a great shade, and a cool one.
Wherefore when St. Jerome translated it as "ivy," St. Augustine objected, in letter 10 to St. Jerome, because some people were protesting at this innovation and making an uproar in church; indeed Calvin openly charged St. Jerome with unfaithful translation and imposture, "and Canthelius," says St. Jerome, "is said to have accused me at Rome some time ago of sacrilege, because I translated 'ivy' instead of 'gourd.'" St. Jerome replies that Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion also translated it as ivy. For in Hebrew it is kikaion, which in Syriac and Punic is called kikeia, and elkeroa (hence the Talmudists too, as R. David attests, say kikaion is what in Arabic is called alkerua), and it is a type of shrub in Palestine, having broad leaves in the manner of vine leaves, and the densest shade, which supports itself on its own trunk and spreads out very quickly, especially in sandy places, and in a wonderful way — if you throw seed into the ground, it quickly grows into a tree when warmed, and within a few days you look up and see a small tree where you had seen an herb. Since this has no name in Greek and Latin: We, says St. Jerome, following Symmachus, Aquila and Theodotion, translated it with a new name, ivy (lest, if we had put the Hebrew name kikaion, the reader might imagine beasts of India, or mountains of Boeotia, or some sort of monster and portent), and this fittingly: because kikaion very rapidly creeps and covers and shades, just like ivy. Add from Theophrastus, book III, chapter XVIII, and from Matthiolus on Dioscorides, book II, chapter CLXXV, that there is one species of ivy with a larger leaf, which does not creep but stands on its own and grows into a tree; just as kikaion does. So we call certain fish sea-wolves, sea-dogs, sea-horses: because they are similar to wolves, dogs, and horses on land. For the same reason the Septuagint translated kikaion as gourd, giving it a new name; because it creeps and shades and is healthy like a gourd; of which the common proverb—
is: "The gourd is healthier;" although truly kikaion is neither a gourd nor our ivy. Therefore R. David, and from him Arias and the Rabbinists, conjecture or rather err, who think kikaion is what the Greeks call kiki, which we call the castor oil plant, or the palm or hand of Christ, because of the articulation of its leaves, which are broad and suited for shade. For the castor oil plant is a poisonous herb, and consequently so is its shade. Who would believe God prepared a poisonous plant for His Prophet as shade, when so many other healthful ones were at hand? Finally, the names of herbs, stones, trees, and animals among the Hebrews are common to diverse and many species. Therefore kikaion, say Ribera and Sanchez, is a general term for shrubs that grow quickly and produce foliage suitable for making shade: hence our Vulgate translates it as ivy; the Septuagint translates it as gourd; others as cucumber; others as plane tree, etc.
Symbolically, ivy is a symbol of the vanity of the world, and of every worldly thing and hope. For of this ivy, verse 10, in the Hebrew it says: "It was a daughter of the night, and a daughter of the night it perished," that is, it was born in one night, and in one night it also perished. Is not honor, pomp, pleasures and riches of the world a daughter of the night, which come in one night, last one night; indeed often pass away and perish in the same night? Just as the worm suddenly ate away the ivy, so often disease, death, hatred, calumnies, robberies, etc., take away the goods of the world. Do you think you rest securely in your riches? You are deceived: you rest under the shade of ivy; the worm of adverse fortune will eat away this ivy; and your shade, your vain and shadowy hope, will vanish. Hence God, just as He did for Jonah, so also for the rich, the honored, etc., often withdraws and takes away this shade; so that men may see that all the hopes they place in these goods of theirs, outside of God, are vain. See what I said about the fruit and the worm growing in it, Amos chapter VIII, 1.
Again, ivy properly so called, with its most tight embrace, wraps itself around trees, binds them, and by binding kills them: pleasures do the same thing to lovers, and often so do mistresses. Wherefore at Rome it was formerly forbidden for the Flamen Dialis to touch ivy, and indeed it was not even lawful to name it: to signify how great a purity and chastity, as well as liberty, befits a priest. For to love, just as to entangle the soul in earthly things, is pure slavery. Hence the proverb: "More ambitious than wanton ivies." Hence also ivy is so called because it clings, and because it follows whatever is nearest. Ivy, says Festus, is so called because it clings, or because it seeks high places, or because it devours that to which it clings, and it was considered to be under the protection of Father Liber (Bacchus), because just as he is always young, so it is always green; or because just as he binds the minds of men, so does it bind all things. Therefore wine, honor and dainties, which bind the mind, are ivy, and therefore enemies of man: just as "ivy," says Pliny, book XVI, chapter XXXIV, "is an enemy to the tree, and to all—
Similar is the case with the gourd, as the Septuagint translates it, and its shade, of which hear Theophylact: "The shade of the gourd," he says, "is the glory of this world; which, like the flower of hay, refreshes us in the heat of afflictions, and therefore is sought by us: but the morning worm strikes it, namely our remorseful conscience, and presenting to us the sense of our sins. For like a perceptible moth of bones and of the heart, setting our crimes before our eyes and teaching us that we are worthy of severe punishments, it strikes the desire for glory, and persuades the Prophet of this: I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him. And shortly after: Because I have sinned, I have been beaten with scourges."
For he had labored. — Jonah labored with bodily heat, going about and preaching in the burning sun, and even more with the heat and pain of his soul, because he saw his oracle being made void.
Verse 7
7. God prepared a worm. — The Syriac and both Arabic versions read: God commanded the worm; He commanded, that is, He ordained, arranged, incited, impelled: for natural instinct in Scripture is called a command. By the worm understand either a caterpillar, as Theophylact suggests, or a wood-borer, as Arias suggests; or rather some other extraordinary kind, more biting and voracious than ours. For that this worm was not ordinary is clear from the fact that it suddenly ate away the ivy at dawn, so that it withered and fell before the sun grew hot and struck Jonah's head: but an ordinary natural worm cannot do this so quickly. Where note: For "at the rising of the dawn" the Chaldean clearly translates: at the rising of the dawn, namely of the day following the preceding day and its night, during which the ivy had grown.
Allegorically, St. Jerome and St. Augustine, letter 49, Question VI: Jonah, that is the Old Testament, had the shade of ivy, that is, earthly promises, which were shadows of things to come in the new law; Christ cut these down, He who is the truth itself, and is born without any seed, and says: "I am a worm and not a man," Psalm XXI, which is titled: For the Morning Reception. "The worm," says St. Augustine, is Christ, "because of the humility of His flesh, and perhaps also because of the Virgin's giving birth. For this creature is usually born from flesh or from any earthly matter without any union. He is the morning worm because He rose at dawn." Jonah grieves when the ivy is cut down; so the Jews mourn when the law of Moses is cut down, indeed they are indignant at Christ and Christians.
Again symbolically, St. Jerome says: There are those who interpret the worm and the burning wind as the Romans
understand as the commanders who, after the resurrection of Christ, utterly destroyed Israel.
Verse 8
Verse 8. 8. The Lord commanded a hot wind. — In Hebrew, a wind kadim, that is an eastern wind, namely the Eurus, which is hot, scorching and burning. So Pagninus and the Zurich Bible.
And he was faint with heat. — The Zurich Bible reads: And he was nearly overcome by the heat; for the heat must have been enormous, which drove him to ask to die. Hence the Septuagint translates: And he was distressed and his soul was failing, as the Complutensian and Royal editions read; although the Roman has: And he was distressed, and he was weary of his own life. The Chaldean: And he was suffering a fainting of spirit. Tropologically, just as the ivy that was making shade for Jonah was eaten by the worm, and the burning sun struck Jonah's head; so also, O man, when your strength is eaten away by disease or old age, death will strike you.
Verse 9
Verse 9. 9. I do well to be angry, even unto death. — "Well," that is, vehemently; or rather, justly and deservedly. Hence Pagninus translates: My anger is vehement unto death. The Zurich Bible: My anger is just, so that I even wish to die. The Septuagint: I am greatly saddened unto death. For just as vehement sadness drove Christ to say: "My soul is sorrowful unto death," that is: The sadness is so great that it nearly overcomes me and takes my life away — so also vehement anger drives men to wish and desire to die; especially if they are opposed, so that they cannot remove the difficulty on account of which they are angry: for then vehement anger begets vehement sadness, grief and despair.
Jonah grieves about the shade of the ivy; so many grieve and contend "about the shadow of a donkey," as the common saying goes, that is, about a matter of little or no importance. The fable from which this proverb was born is told by Aristophanes in the Wasps, and Plutarch in the Life of Demosthenes. Apuleius also mentions it in his book The Golden Ass. Demosthenes, they say, when he found the judges paying little attention, in order to make them attentive, told a fable, saying: A certain man had hired a donkey to carry him from Athens to Megara; at midday in the journey, with the sun blazing and having no other shade, he set down the packsaddle and, sitting under the donkey, covered himself with its shadow. But the donkey driver would not allow this, driving the man away from there and shouting that the donkey had been hired, not the donkey's shadow. The other man argued the opposite, insisting that the donkey's shadow too had been hired. From quarreling they came to blows, from there to court and tribunal. Having said this, Demosthenes suddenly stepped down and departed. Called back by the judges to finish the fable, he said: "So then you are willing to hear about the shadow of a donkey, but you find it burdensome to hear the case of a man whose life is at stake?"
Verse 10
Verse 10. 10. You grieve over the ivy, for which you did not labor — that is: If you grieve so much over a cheap herb, ivy, which quickly grows and quickly perishes, being cut down; how much more ought you to grieve with Me, and repent, over the destruction of so great a city and so many hundreds of thousands of souls as are in Nineveh, and to have mercy on them when they repent, and to spare them? So today there are not lacking nobles who grieve more at the death of a horse than of a servant; indeed who kill their servants in the cultivation of fields, sheep, and birds, and would rather lose a man than a falcon, a horse, or a hawk.
St. Ephrem beautifully says, sermon On Jonah: "The gourd now becomes a teacher for you, from which learn wisdom and prudence, and how great is the power of divine clemency. You spare the gourd, and I spare the city. Let your hut be a mirror of the city. You seek a lowly hut, and you want to utterly destroy a city? Where is your right judgment, O Jonah? Do you consider a gourd more important than a city? Over a cheap gourd you show the feeling of compassion, and toward the city you show yourself most harsh and severe?" And shortly after he continues the history of Jonah thus: "And gathering together, the repentant people worshipped him and offered gifts with their tithes. The king opened his treasures and offered him very honorable gifts; Jonah was celebrated with one voice by all, and entering the royal chariot, he took his seat." Then he adds that the king sent men to escort Jonah back to Jerusalem with honor and to treat him comfortably at the lodgings along the way; and that Jonah himself, approaching Jerusalem, greeting them with a kiss and embrace, and giving them his blessing, sent them home: for he did not wish to allow them, though they asked earnestly, to enter the holy city, lest they see the idols and scandals of his nation.
Which came up in one night and perished in one night. — In Hebrew: Which was a daughter of the night, and a daughter of the night it perished, that is, which arose in one night and perished in one night. So Vatablus and Pagninus. Clearly the Chaldean: Which existed in this night, but perished on the other night. For on the first night the ivy was born, which on the following day, when the sun was burning, protected Jonah from the heat with its shade; at the end of the following night, namely at dawn, the worm by God's command ate away the ivy. Hence the rising sun afflicted Jonah, so that he was faint with heat and wished to die. Therefore these things were accomplished in the space of two days.
Verse 11
11. One hundred twenty thousand persons. — In Hebrew, twelve ribbo, that is, ten thousands, that is 120,000: for twelve times ten make one hundred twenty. So the Septuagint, Pagninus, and the Zurich Bible which translates it as twelve myriads: for a myriad contains ten thousand; otherwise if you take myriad for a million, it will be false. For who would believe there were twelve million infants in Nineveh? For a million contains ten times one hundred thousand.
Who do not know their right hand from their left — that is, good and evil. It is a proverb. This phrase is taken from children: "Who do not know whether the right or the left hand is stronger, and more suitable for any use; because they have not yet experienced it: for equally—
for still at this time, because they have recently come forth from the womb, each little arm, each hand is altogether weak," says Rupert, who mystically applies this to those who do not know the difference between God's truth and human falsehood.
From this passage theologians, and notably Gabriel Vasquez, III part, Question LXVIII, article 8, disputation CCLIV, chapter III, rightly refute the Lutherans, who teach that we are justified precisely by faith through the work of the doer, not through sacraments working by the work performed: and that sacraments are therefore employed only for this purpose, to arouse the faith of the recipient, by which he is justified: and consequently that infants, who in baptism are cleansed from original sin and justified, elicit an act of faith by which they are justified, just as St. John the Baptist did in his mother's womb, Luke I, 44. For this dogma is not only against all experience, but also against Scripture in this passage, which teaches that infants do not know what is between the right and left hand, that is, they do not discern between good and evil. For if they had faith, they would certainly discern between good and evil. For faith discerns virtues from vices, eternal things from temporal, God from creatures. For as the Apostle says, Hebrews XI, 1: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Wherefore this dogma of Luther seemed so foolish to the Anabaptists that they preferred to teach that infants should not be baptized; but that one must wait until they grow up and, possessing the use of reason, elicit an act of faith by which they may be justified, rather than admit that infants use reason. Behold into what straits, into what absurdities heresy drives the Innovators. Wherefore St. Augustine, book I On the Merits of Sinners, chapter XXXV, laughs at certain Pelagians who said that there were actual sins in infants. For we observe, he says, that they are so devoid of the use of the mind that they do not even know where they are, and when the breasts are lying next to them they can more easily cry from hunger than suckle: since they know neither the breasts themselves, nor anything else. How shall they acknowledge God, who do not acknowledge the breasts, nor their mother?
Morally, learn here how much more clement God is than even a holy man, and how much better it is to flee to God's tribunal than to that of men. If Jonah had been the judge in the case of the Ninevites, he would have passed a sentence of death on all of them, even though penitent, on account of their past crimes, because God had passed this sentence before their repentance; but God passes the contrary sentence, by which He absolves them from death on account of their repentance. So David, when Nathan offered him the choice of sword, famine and pestilence, chose pestilence, saying: "It is better that I fall into the hands of the Lord (for His mercies are many) than into the hands of men," II Kings XXIV, 14. Therefore Seneca errs, book II On Clemency, chapter V, when he says that "mercy is the vice of the faint-hearted, one who collapses at the sight of others' misfortunes." More truly Aristotle, book II of the Rhetoric, chapter VIII: "The wise man," he says, "is merciful, the foolish man is unmerciful and shame-
less." This is what the Church professes in the Collect of the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost: "O God, who most of all manifest Your omnipotence by sparing and showing mercy, multiply upon us Your mercy, so that as we hasten toward Your promises, You may make us partakers of heavenly goods." Hence the Gothic Bibles here at the end of Jonah add, and conclude it with this sentence: "But I will spare and have mercy on them, because great is My name."
Again, God here teaches Jonah and all of us to conform ourselves to the divine will in all things, so that when He commands some work, we may immediately begin and pursue it cheerfully and courageously; but when He commands us to cease from it, or when it is frustrated of its fruit and effect, we may immediately cease with a tranquil mind, and patiently bear that our work and labor is deprived of its end and fruit. For what do we seek except to do the will of God and to conform ourselves to Him in all things? But the will of God now is that you leave, indeed destroy, the work you have begun; therefore you must acquiesce to it: otherwise you serve not the will of God but your own fantasy and desire. And in this matter consists the perfection of the holy soul, that in all actions and events, both adverse and prosperous, with full resignation each person most humbly and most wholeheartedly resign himself to God, and accept whatever happens, and with a tranquil, indeed joyful mind receive it from the hand of God; and finally rejoice that in this matter the will of God is being fulfilled, and say with St. Job: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has been done; blessed be the name of the Lord."
So Abraham, commanded to sacrifice his son, drew the sword against him; but when he perceived he was being called back by the angel at God's command, he immediately put the sword back in its sheath; and just as he was not saddened when he received from God the command to sacrifice his son, so neither did he rejoice when he heard God revoking this command and sparing his son — both of which were acts of a great and heroic soul, surrendering itself entirely to God, and therefore indifferent and ready for all things. So St. Louis, by the inspiration of God, crossed to the Holy Land to restore it to God and the Church; but frustrated of all the fruit of his endeavor, indeed taken captive, he tranquilly rested in the good pleasure of God. Certainly this tranquility of acquiescence was equal to, indeed greater than, the magnanimity of so great a work and expedition. St. Francis, having set out for Egypt by the inspiration of God to convert the Sultan, or to be granted by him the laurel of martyrdom, when neither succeeded, returned tranquil, resigning himself entirely to the will of God. Other saints did the same. Wherefore St. Ignatius, the founder of our Society, had so transferred his will to God's will that he said: "If by some chance the Society I had begun and promoted with such great labors were dissolved or destroyed, after half an hour spent in prayer, I would take, with God's help, no distress from that event, than which nothing more sorrowful could happen to me." The saints therefore allow themselves to be turned and turned again by the will of God, just as a horse is turned and turned again by its rider.